Sunday, January 19. 2014

What a year!.Another Saturday somewhat disrupted by the Winter weather.There was a reasonable turn out at the shop
but a lot of people left at lunchtime as the rate of snowfall increased.For those of us that stuck it out, the snow
did cease by evening and the slither down US20 to the expressway was what we
are becoming used to.

It was definitely a day for work
inside the shop and the absence of some key people and parts meant that testing
of the paint sprayer could not proceed.However work progressed in a number of other areas.

On 1630:

Brian
did a great job in cleaning out the rust scale from the tender tank.The treatment applied a few years ago has not
proved successful and a layer of rusty metal has largely scaled off the bottom
of the tank.During the test steaming we
had some issues with blockage of the water flow to the injectors.From Brian’s handiwork it is clear why this
happened.As the rust and muck lifts it
tends to be drawn forward to gather in the area from which the water is being drawn
by the injectors.After several hours of
work in the tank he had extracted a couple of gallons of rusty debris.This was a foul job.We can use the ducted fan to circulate air
but you still have to work in clouds of rusty dust;

The
reverser reservoir is now back in place so that the valves can be moved using
air pressure;

Small reservoir back in place

Jim
continued the job of masking the lettering and this is now largely complete.After all this effort we are wondering if we
should stay with blue lettering !;

Lettering masked ready to paint

Matt
primed the area of the engineer’s side walkway that was cleaned off last week;

On the Shay:

Phil
is progressing well with the bolster for the truck.With the lugs for the springs now completed,
it has been primed and now painted on one side at least.Now we just have to turn it over and do the
other side, once it is dry.

The bolster part painted

We
made good progress on the bolts that fit thru the frame and truck pivot
casting.We had been working on the misapprehension
that these simply secured the pivot into the frame.Jeff reminded us that some of them also
secure the large fabricated draw bar that runs down to the wooden front beam
and on which the coupler is mounted.Having made that connection, we found that new bolts were acquired a few
years back and stored with the drawbar.Each hole needs to be cleaned and reamed slightly to allow the bolts to
be fitted.However, with the parts in
hand I was able to fit the first of them by end of day.Looking at the front of the frame member, the
bolts in the 4 outer holes secure the drawbar while the 2 in the middle (which
are currently occupied by locating pegs) only secure the pivot casting to the
beam.The drawbar fabrication has a
recess that fits around the nuts of the two center bolts.The first of the new bolts is in place in the
lower left hole and the holes for the remaining five can now be reamed to allow
the bolts to be fitted.

First bolt fitted

In the shop in general, some
significant reorganization was achieved:

With
the swager gone, we were able to relocate the air pump for #428 so that it can
now be worked on while allowing free access thru the door.(It does not look like free access in the picture
but the forklift is actually standing in the exit with a pallet of parts ready
to drive out to the boxcar ……. Once there is not 6 inches of snow and ice in the
way !!);

Work area and way out

Phil
did a great job sorting and cleaning the steel stock storage area.

This is such fascinating work! Do you have very many young people (under 30) who volunteer at the museum? They can learn so much from the older hands not to mention being the future the museum needs to build on. I know the museum appreciates all of its volunteers and the work they do.

E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:

Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry

Submitted comments will be subject to moderation before being displayed.

Blog Administration

Find us on Facebook

find us on instagram

Category Tree

Calendar

Quicksearch

Comments

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Wed, 07-29-2015 07:42Subject to the general caveat that
a 100 year old steam engine can
always develop a last minute fault,
it is planned that #1630 will
operate 8/1 and [...]

CincyCubfan23 about Steam Department Update June 2015Wed, 07-29-2015 06:28Nigel - First, THANK YOU for all
the work you do (and everyone else
at IRM, for that matter)!
I believe I know the answer, but
I'll ask anyhow. [...]

Nathan about Steam Department Update June 2015Mon, 07-27-2015 16:26Nigel,
All matters of practicality do
indeed have to be taken into
consideration.
That said, as another suggestion,
you may want to talk to your [...]

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Mon, 07-27-2015 07:38Nathan,
All ideas to be considered and
depends on how this year turns
out.
The big reason we run Thomas over
the route we do is the space [...]

Nathan about Steam Department Update June 2015Sun, 07-26-2015 19:24Hi Nigel,
Just noticed the comments and plans
for Thomas on this thread and am
intrigued.
It seems like a great idea to have
#1630 push the Percy [...]

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Sun, 07-26-2015 09:41Andrew,
No. The Thomas train will follow
its normal route.
There will be two event trains, the
Thomas train and the Percy train
(standard DOWT [...]

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Sat, 07-25-2015 08:45Peter,
The Thomas days will be
significantly different this year.
There will be a Percy train as well
as a Thomas train and, subject to
the [...]

Peter D. about Steam Department Update June 2015Fri, 07-24-2015 23:51Greetings: Quick question regarding
steam operations...In addition to
Thomas, when would you expect a
steam locomotive to be on the
tacks. Thanks.